"Paradox"

if I were building theremins for sale, I would have more carefully worked on this issue, including the crash tests (dewster is 100% right).But for personal use, I believe, that's overkilling. You can always make a five-munute diagnostics/replacement.Plus, touching the pitch antenna is a rather rare action (in comparison to volume antenna). - Ilya

I'm connecting oscillator output to expensive FPGA board, so for me it makes sense to protect it as dewster suggested.

But the first line of defense against ESD is insulating the antennas, and I recommend this for all Theremins. Historical convention be damned. - dewster